Business News

SIXTY GROUP FOCUSES ON KIDS’ FOOTWEAR

During the March 2011 edition of Micam, Italian Sixty Group announced a series of new strategic operations in order to support its more focused growth strategy after the recent reorganization (see our reportage).

The restructuring of the company is headed by the new CEO Pietro Bongiovanni, supported by Guido Pullini,Sales & Marketing Director for Miss Sixty, Killah, Energie, Refrigiwear and Murphy & Nye, while also coordinating foreign subsidiaries and retail activities,as well as by Marco Bortoletti, working as high-profile manager enhancing performance in sales connected to creativity and R&D within the fashion-oriented brands Miss Sixty, Energie and Killah.

After six seasons of absence from the specialized Italian footwear trade show Micam, Sixty returned and announced Benito Benassi as Licensing & Business Development Division Manager plus several new licensing agreements for their kids' footwear collections starting in f/w 2011/2012. The Refrigiwear Junior line will be produced by Mafrat Spa, a specialized manufacturer. For the Energie and Miss Sixty kids’ footwear collections, they signed an agreement with Asso Sr,l and for the Killah and Murphy & Nye footwear junior lines they have signed an agreement with Fly Srl.

In more general terms, the group wants to grow in countries where it is harder for them to expand because of heavy local duties and anti-dumping restrictions, such as, for instance, Mexico, Brazil and India, through agreements with local partners. Moreover, they signed two licensing agreements for their footwear collections with JC for China and with Killick Data in the US, a market where they apparently are not distributing their apparel collections at present.

Sixty Group has maintained a turnover of €395 million in 2010 (the same it achieved in 2009) and an increased EBITDA compared to €43.9 million registered in 2009. For 2011, they expect to reach a turnover of €380 million and increase their performance profitability even if a most noticeable recovery is expected from 2012 on.